Here appear occasional jottings of my random musings. Profound or jejune, they reveal the contours of my mental universe, with world history, intellectual history, civilizations, philosophy, religion, society, knowledge, and books as some major themes.
Since May 2011, this blog has been exclusively focused on Singapore. All my other reflections are now posted in "Notes from Noosphere" (see link under "Miscellany" on the right margin).

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Monday, February 13, 2012

Lee Kuan Yew before and after gaining power

“But we either believe in democracy or we do not. If we do, then, we must say
categorically, without qualification, that no restraint from any democratic
processes, other than by the ordinary law of the land, should be allowed. If you
believe in democracy, you must believe in it unconditionally. If you believe
that men should be free, then, they should have the right of free association,
of free speech, of free publication. Then, no law should permit those democratic
processes to be set at nought.”- Opposition leader Lee Kuan Yew,
April 27, 1955

“If it is not totalitarian to arrest a man and detain him, when you cannot
charge him with any offence against any written law – if that is not what we
have always cried out against in Fascist states – then what is it?. If we are to
survive as a free democracy, then we must be prepared, in principle, to concede
to our enemies – even those who do not subscribe to our views – as much
constitutional rights as you concede yourself.”- Opposition leader
Lee Kuan Yew, Legislative Assembly Debates, Sept 21, 1955

“If we say that we believe in democracy, if we say that the fabric of a
democratic society is one which allows for the free play of idea. Then, in the
name of all the gods, give that free play a chance to work within the
constitutional framework.”- Opposition leader Lee Kuan Yew,
Singapore Legislative Assembly, Oct 4, 1956

“Repression, Sir is a habit that grows. I am told it is like making love – it
is always easier the second time! The first time there may be pangs of
conscience, a sense of guilt. But once embarked on this course with constant
repetition you get more and more brazen in the attack. All you have to do is to
dissolve organizations and societies and banish and detain the key political
workers in these societies. Then miraculously everything is tranquil on the
surface. Then an intimidated press and the government controlled radio together
can regularly sing your praises, and slowly and steadily the people are made to
forget the evil things that have already been done, or if these things are
referred to again they’re conveniently distorted and distorted with impunity,
because there will be no opposition to contradict.”- Opposition
leader Lee Kuan Yew speaking to David Marshall, Singapore Legislative Assembly,
Debates, 4 October, 1956

“You attack only those whom your Special Branch can definitely say are
communists. Then you attack those whom your Special Branch says are aiding
communists. Then finally, when you have gone that far, you attack all who oppose
you.”- Opposition leader Lee Kuan Yew speaking to David Marshall,
Singapore Legislative Assembly, Debates, 4 October, 1956

“Repression can only go up to a point. When it becomes too acute, the
instruments of repression, namely the army and the police, have been proved time
and time again in history to have turned their guns on their
masters.”- Opposition leader Lee Kuan Yew, Straits Times, May 5,
1959

“These powers will not be allowed to be used against political opponents
within the system who compete for the right to work the system. That is
fundamental and basic or the powers will have destroyed the purpose for which
they were forged.”- Opposition leader Lee Kuan Yew speaking in
Parliament on the Preservation of Public Security Act, a precursor to the ISA,
Oct 14, 1959

“I pointed to an article with bold headlines reporting that the police had
refused to allow the PAP to hold a rally at Empress Place , and then to the last
paragraph where in small type it added the meeting would take place where we
were now. I compared this with a prominent report about an SPA rally. This was
flagrant bias.”- Opposition leader Lee Kuan Yew commenting on the
Straits Times, 1959.

.

LEE KUAN YEW AFTER PAP CAME INTO
POWER

“We must encourage those who earn less than $200 per month and cannot afford
to nurture and educate many children never to have more than two. We will regret
the time lost if we do not now take the first tentative steps towards correcting
a trend which can leave our society with a large number of the physically,
intellectually and culturally anaemic.”- Lee Kuan Yew,
1967

“I make no apologies that the PAP is the Government and the Government is the
PAP.”- Lee Kuan Yew, Petir, 1982

“One-man-one-vote is a most difficult form of government.. Results can be
erratic.”- Lee Kuan Yew, Dec 19 1984

“We have to lock up people, without trial, whether they are communists,
whether they are language chauvinists, whether they are religious extremists. If
you don’t do that, the country would be in ruins.”- Lee Kuan Yew,
1986

“I am often accused of interfering in the private lives of citizens. Yes, if
I did not, had I not done that, we wouldn’t be here today. And I say without the
slightest remorse, that we wouldn’t be here, we would not have made economic
progress, if we had not intervened on very personal matters- who your neighbor
is, how you live, the noise you make, how you spit, or what language you use. We
decide what is right. Never mind what the people think.”- Prime
Minister Lee Kuan Yew, Straits Times, 20 April 1987

“It is not the practice, nor will I allow subversives to get away by
insisting that I’ve got to prove everything against them in a court of law or
[produce] evidence that will stand up to the strict rules of evidence of a court
of law.”- Lee Kuan Yew, 1988

“I’m not intellectually convinced that one-man-one-vote is the best. We
practice it because that’s what the British bequeathed us.”- Lee
Kuan Yew, 1994

“Anybody who decides to take me on needs to put on knuckle-dusters. If you
think you can hurt me more than I can hurt you, try. There is no way you can
govern a Chinese society.”- Lee Kuan Yew, The Man and His Ideas,
1997

“They say people can think for themselves? Do you honestly believe that the
chap who can’t pass primary six knows the consequence of his choice when he
answers a question viscerally, on language, culture and religion? But we knew
the consequences. We would starve, we would have race riots. We would
disintegrate.”- Lee Kuan Yew, The Man & His Ideas,
1997

“If we had considered them serious political figures, we would not have kept
them politically alive for so long. We could have bankrupted them
earlier.”- Lee Kuan Yew on political opposition, Straits Times, Sept
14 2003

“If I have to shoot 200,000 students to save China from another 100 years of
disorder, so be it.”- Lee Kuan Yew evoking the ghost of Deng
Xiaoping whilst endorsing the Tiananmen Square massacre, Straits Times, Aug 17,
2004

“Without the elected president and if there is a freak result, within two or
three years, the army would have to come in and stop it”- Lee Kuan
Yew on what would happen if a profligate opposition government touched Singapore
’s vast monetary reserves, Straits Times, Sept 16 2006

“Please do not assume that you can change governments. Young people don’t
understand this”- Lee Kuan Yew on the results of the 2006
election